Keeping Important Pinky Promises?

by Gary Rubinstein

On the subway yesterday, I saw this advertisement for KIPP:

The claim is that “Our K-12 public schools promise to see each child to and through college.”

One problem with this claim is that even in the most generous study possible, KIPP’s own, only a third of students who completed KIPPs middle schools eventually graduated college. This, of course, ignores that up to 40% of students who begin a KIPP middle school in 5th grade do not eventually complete 8th grade there.

In trying to figure out how they can make this claim without being sued for false advertisement, one thing I thought of is that in the picture above the ad, notice that the fingers on the students appear to be crossed. Perhaps this is part of the SLANT posture, or maybe this is something that they will get to use in their legal defense.

But then I thought of something that will fully get them off the hook if they are ever sued. The say “Our K-12 public schools” not “Our K-12 charter schools” or even “Our K-12 public charter schools” so since they have exactly zero K-12 public schools, they can say that those schools promise to see ‘each child’ since zero out of zero children can, at least mathematically speaking, be considered ‘each child.’